Deck 9: The Rise of Islam

Question 1

What is Islam's simple confession of faith?

A) "There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet".
B) "There is but one god, Yahweh, and Muhammad is his Prophet".
C) "There is but one God, Allah, and Muhammad is His Son".
D) "There are two Gods, Yahweh and Satan, and Mani is their Prophet".

Answer 1

A

Question 2

Which of the following does NOT make up the core curriculum taught in Islamic religious schools?

A) Qur'an
B) Hadith
C) Arabic language
D) madrasa

Answer 2

D

Question 3

Ibn Khaldun argued that history should

A) emphasize the role of divine forces.
B) focus on human activity.
C) stress the shaping power of religion.
D) concentrate on the central role of "great men" in events.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Which is the term for the holy law of Islam?

A) ulama
B) Hadith
C) sunnah
D) Sharia

Question 5

The word Islam is Arabic for

A) holy.
B) pure.
C) submission.
D) universal.

Question 6

The early caliphs of Islam invaded neighboring areas and, as conquerors, showed wisdom by

A) preventing looting by the tribesmen they led.
B) destroying the villages they captured.
C) allowing conquered peoples to practice their own religions as long as they respected Muslim authorities.
D) assassinating all the native political leaders.

Question 7

The development and tenets of Islam included all the following EXCEPT that

A) Medina was Islam's model city and there religious leaders would govern.
B) Muhammad was a ruler, not a consensus builder.
C) faith, not blood or tribe, unified believers.
D) the faithful would pray to Jerusalem.

Question 8

Each of the 114 chapters of the Qur'an is called a

A) sura.
B)
C) Hadith.
D) ayas.
B) madrasa.

Question 9

Saladin established which dynasty?

A) Umayyad
B) Ayyubid
C) Abbasid
D) Seljuk Turk

Question 10

In the eighth century, Sunni Islam was challenged by the rise of Sufism, a mystical movement that

A) rejected the legalism and formalism that had crept into Islam.
B) rejected the Five Pillars of Faith.
C) insisted that silk garments were the proper attire for the faithful.
D) concluded that all righteous Muslims should live in monasteries.

Question 11

A Muslim is

A) "one who has surrendered".
B) a warrior of God.
C) flexible in religious belief.
D) a leader of the Ottoman Turks.

Question 12

Who wrote the Canon of Medicine?

A) Averroës
B) Ibn Khaldun
C) Avicenna
D) Muhammad al-Razi

Question 13

The word Qur'an literally means

A) translation.
B) prophet.
C) monotheism.
D) recitation.

Question 14

Which of the following was practiced by medieval Muslim doctors?

A) surgery
B) a stress on diet
C) observation and experimentation
D) All these answers are correct.

Question 15

The prophet Muhammad was forced to flee Mecca because

A) he sought to convert the merchants there to polytheism.
B) he threatened the economy of the city by attacking the Kaaba, a local pagan shrine.
C) his aristocratic origins posed a threat to the Arabs who had settled in the city.
D) the materialism he taught was unacceptable to the city leaders.

Question 16

The Shiites are distinguished from the Sunni, or mainstream Muslims, as partisans of which caliph and cousin of Muhammad, who was murdered in 651?

A) Ali
B) Muawiyah
C) Abbas
D) Saladin

Question 17

Which group seized Baghdad in the 1250s?

A) Seljuk Turks
B) Mongols
C) Christian crusaders
D) Umayyads

Question 18

The Seljuk Turks dealt the Byzantines a crushing defeat in 1071 that resulted in the emperor's eventual request for Western assistance, which took the form of

A) the Crusades.
B) uprisings against the Abbasid dynasty.
C) attempts to assassinate Saladin.
D) disasters leading to the decline of Cairo as a center of learning.

Question 19

By 632, on the eve of his death, Muhammad had succeeded in uniting the people of the Arabian peninsula and providing them all the following EXCEPT

A) a faith based on revelation.
B) a model of pacifistic expansion.
C) an ethical code of conduct.
D) a monotheistic deity.

Question 20

Muawiyah (about 602-680), founder of the Umayyad dynasty, moved the caliphate's capital to

A) Damascus.
B) Baghdad.
C) Cairo.
D) Jerusalem.

Question 21

The capital of the Abbasid dynasty was

A) Damascus.
B) Baghdad.
C) Medina
D) Istanbul

Question 22

Ibn Khaldun's greatest achievement was

A) the translation of the Qur'an into multiple languages.
B) a multivolume history of the world.
C) the development of new forms of Arabic poetry and verse.
D) the reconciliation of Aristotelian and Christian thought.

Question 23

25 The dominant architectural structure in Islam is the

A) temple.
B) fortress-palace.
C) mosque.
D) tomb.

Question 24

The elementary school of early Islam

A) taught boys and girls the proper way to read and interpret the Qur'an.
B) taught basic religious education to boys.
C) taught advanced religious education concerning the Qur'an.
D) provided military training and tactics to budding religious warriors.

Question 25

The concept of adab mostly closely means

A) faithfulness.
B) rules of conduct.
C) cleanliness.
D) devotion.

Question 26

What important technology did Christian Europe learn from Islamic civilization in Spain?

A) gunpowder
B) artillery
C) paper making
D) hydraulics

Question 27

The oldest extant Islamic monument, from the seventh century, is the

A) Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem.
B) Great Mosque of Kairouan in Tunisia.
C) Ibn Tulun mosque in Cairo.
D) Alhambra in Granada.

Question 28

Which of the following influenced Islamic architecture?

A) Greco-Roman columns
B) Byzantine domes
C) the Persian teaching mosque
D) All these answers are correct.

Question 29

Which of the following was an influence of medieval Islam on the West?

A) It transmitted the legacies of classical Greco-Roman culture.
B) It reconciled religion with Aristotle's philosophy.
C) It gave the West algebra, the pointed arch, and other technologies.
D) All these answers are correct.

Question 30

Which of the following is NOT true of the Dome of the Rock?

A) It has been lost to history.
B) It reflected the simple values of Islam.
C) Only religious activities were allowed within its walls.
D) It contained a qiblah wall.

Question 31

Who was the foremost writer in the maqamah genre?

A) al-Hamadhani
B) al-Hariri
C) Ibn Hazm
D) Rumi

Question 32

A thin pointed tower in which a Muslim official calls the faithful to prayer is called a

A) muezzin.
B) minaret.
C) mosque.
D) broadcast tower.

Question 33

Religious schools for advanced study in the Islamic world are called

A) madrasas.
B) Alhambras.
C) minarets.
D) None of these answers is correct.

Question 34

Which of the following describes the ghazal?

A) a short lyric usually dealing with love
B) a lament, especially for the dead
C) an ode with a pagan theme
D) an epic poem focusing on a warrior's conquests

Question 35

Which of the following was a typical focus of the maqamah genre of Arabic literature?

A) lowlifes
B) royalty
C) clerics
D) adventurers

Question 36

Which of the following was a major technological achievement of the Muslim world?

A) naval sail technology
B) rudimentary electronics
C) hydraulics
D) gunpowder and demolitions

Question 37

Which type of Islamic art was developed despite a Qur'anic prohibition?

A) arabesque
B) book painting
C) calligraphy
D) decorations of mihrabs in mosques

Question 38

Which of the following is a pulpit?

A) minaret
B) qiblah
C) minbar
D)
D) iwan

Question 39

Islamic scholars have not accepted The Thousand and One Nights as classical literature because of its

A) fictional nature.
B) pre-Muslim origin.
C) rejection of many of the tenets of Islam.
D) colloquial language and grammatical errors.

Question 40

Which is NOT a characteristic feature of an Islamic mosque?

A) a nearby minaret for prayer calls
B) an open courtyard
C) rows of benches to accommodate the faithful
D) rich decorations of mosaics, Oriental carpets, and calligraphic friezes

Question 41

What were the social, historical, and geographical conditions in the Arab peninsula on the eve of the founding of Islam?

Question 42

Discuss the intellectual accomplishments of Muslim scholars during the Abbasid dynasty.

Question 43

What were the key events in the life of Muhammad, and how did these events affect the rise of Islam?

Question 44

What were the most significant legacies of medieval Islam?

Question 45

The Great Mosque in Spain is a brilliant example of what style of mosque?

A) simple dome
B) iwan
C) madrasa
D) congregational

Question 46

Discuss the beliefs of Sufi Muslims. How did they differ from and challenge Sunni Muslim orthodoxy?

Question 47

Discuss the role of Mecca and Medina in the development of Islam.

Question 48

What impact did Islam have on society, politics, art, architecture, and literature?

Question 49

What is the basic purpose of sharia law?

A) to prescribe punishments for violators of religious custom
B) to provide for the smooth running of government
C) to facilitate the expansion of Islam to foreign lands
D) to tell the faithful what to believe and how to behave
Essay Questions

Question 50

How did Islam influence the technological development and the arts of the modern West?

Question 51

How did book painting and Persian miniatures reflect artistic stages of development in Islamic civilization?

Question 52

What are the principal theological beliefs found in the Qur'an and the Hadith?

Question 53

Music in Muslim culture was initially dominated by

A) choral music accompanied by a small orchestra.
B) instrumental music.
C) vocal music.
D) brass instruments.

Question 54

The first written Islamic histories dealt with

A) the pre-Muslim history of the Arabian peninsula.
B) the life of the Prophet.
C) the establishment of the Abbasid dynasty.
D) Islamic relations with the Byzantine world.

Question 55

Yahya ibn Mahmud al-Wasiti, considered the best of the Arab painters whose works survive, typically painted

A) episodes in the life of a con artist.
B) episodes in the life of Muhammad.
C) still lifes of scenes depicted in the Qur'an.
D) still lifes of Muslim architectural works.